Rental sector organisations have been given an indication by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities that a new How To Rent guide will be issued in early October.
Agents and private landlords MUST serve the latest version of the guide at the start of any new tenancy and on renewal if there has been an update to the contents of the guide. It forms part of the prescribed information landlords must issue, and if they do not, they lose the right to repossess using Section 21.
The latest update - likely on October 2 - will be the second update in 2023 and the revision next month will include reference to the controversial Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service, which replaces the Housing Possession Court Duty Schemes and allows tenants to access legal advice if they are at risk of losing their home.
The HLPAS offers early legal advice, free of charge, to anyone at risk of possession proceedings and loss of their home. Advice can be provided in relation to Housing, Debt and Welfare Benefits issues, and this assistance includes so-called ’In Court Duty’ on-the-day emergency advice and advocacy to anyone facing possession proceedings.
Under the new scheme, the Legal Aid Agency is extending court duty scheme work to include early legal advice on housing, welfare benefits and debt from the moment a landlord or lender issues a notice to repossess. This is non-means and non-merits tested.
A government statement says: “The service enables anyone at risk of losing their home or facing possession proceedings to get free legal advice, and representation in court, regardless of their financial circumstances.”
The government says new versions of the How to Rent guide will be available on the gov.uk website during the day on Monday October 2.
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"and if they do not, they lose the right to repossess using Section 21"
Going to lose it anyway. Muppets.
Do any tenants actually read it?
I wonder what intimidation the government will use to 'encourage' i.e. threaten landlords with for not giving tenants the very newest copy of their "Don't Worry Too Much About Your Tenancy Agreement Because We're On Your Side & Your Landlord Has No Real Rights Anymore Guide" after they abolish the s.21 so you can't risk losing what was forcibly taken from you already?
Obviously we already know it will soon be crucification for landlords whether they/we provide the guide or not , but perhaps they/we will also lose the right to charge rent if its not the very latest version as that was the only thing they'd been still allowed to hope for (but not be guaranteed of course)?
...by the way... Its just occurred to me that despite claims to the contray, they must have known all along how vital the s.21 is to us otherwise why would they have been already threatening to take it from us if we didn't comply with their demand to force their increasingly not very subtly anti-landlord propaganda on our tenants?
Love your more accurate version of the title of this guide!
Thank you @AL,but I think it's the plain truth!
Does anyone remember the "Easy Read" version they used to offer as an alternative but seem to have given up on for now?
It was even longer and of course full of large, simplistic cartoon-style pictures supposed to illustrate the simplified snippets of text that accompanied them...
...apparently it was aimed at all of our many tenants with "learning difficulties" who, unaccountably, were all represented by the same person sitting (and of course smiling slightly stupidly, but greatfully) for no obvious reason in a wheelchair.
I hope they bring that back next month but perhaps with a more "diverse" cast of miscellaneous tenants to give us a better idea of who they'd like us to be offering our future sitting tenancies to.... AAHHHH!!! I've suddenly got it.... maybe that's the "levelling up" people's covert metaphore for a sitting tenancy?!?! 😁
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